Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories

By Lila Abu-Lughod

Book Overview

In 1978 Lila Abu-Lughod climbed out of a dusty van to meet members of a small Awlad 'Ali Bedouin community. Living in this Egyptian Bedouin settlement for extended periods during the following decade, Abu-Lughod took part in family life, with its moments of humor, affection, and anger. She witnessed striking changes, both cultural and economic, and she recorded the stories of the women. Writing Women's Worlds is Abu-Lughod's telling of those stories; it is also about what happens in bringing the stories to others.

As the new teller of these tales Abu-Lughod draws on anthropological and feminist insights to construct a critical ethnography. She explores how the telling of these stories challenges the power of anthropological theory to render adequately the lives of others and the way feminist theory appropriates Third World women. Writing Women's Worlds is thus at once a vivid set of stories and a study in the politics of representation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520083040
• ISBN13: 9780520083042
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Yes, good

In great condition. Plenty of email notifications on my order's status and info. This purchase was quick and simple.

Engrossing

This book gives intimate details of the events most important to the women involved-- family dynamics, marriage, childbirth, and so forth. Because Ms. Abu-Lughod seems to have become almost a member of the family, the book reads like an insider's rather than outsider's account. It is affectionate without becoming sentimental or lacking in objectivity.

Fascinating!

I am not usually particularly intrigued by anthropological or ethnographic treatises, but this one is very well-written and very interesting. The author plays with narrative styles and tells stories as just that-- stories-- even as she describes a life in an Egyptian Bedouin community that many readers will not have imagined, let alone experienced.Highly reccomended.